Category Archives: In the Courts

On Monday, when the Washington State Supreme Court
convenes for the first time this year, history will be made: a
majority of the court is made up of women, including the chief
justice, for the first time ever.

And it will be Bainbridge resident and longtime appellate lawyer
Sheryl Gordon McCloud who tipped the scales. McCloud, who
upset a competitive field last fall that included longtime
King County Superior Court judge Bruce Hilyer, former state
Supreme Court judge Richard Sanders, and former Pierce
County prosecutor and county executive John Ladenburg, joins four
other justices to put females in the majority on the court, the
Washington Courts Web site
pointed out Thursday.

The public is invited to the opening of the court’s 2013
session, at 9:30 a.m. Monday in the Temple of Justice in
Olympia.

Here’s more from the courts’ release:

The ceremony will also mark the inaugurations of Justice Susan
J. Owens and Justice Steven González, who were both elected to
six-year terms, and Chief Justice Barbara Madsen, who was
re-elected by her colleagues to a four-year term as Chief
Justice.

The event is open to the public and will be held in the
Supreme Court at the Temple of Justice in Olympia.

Sheryl Gordon McCloud graduated from the State University of New
York at Buffalo in 1976, and graduated from the University of
Southern California Gould School of Law in 1984. She clerked for
Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Warren Ferguson before
beginning her practice, which included extensive experience in
appellate law. In 2008, the Washington Association of Criminal
Defense Lawyers awarded her their highest award, the William O.
Douglas Award, for “extraordinary courage” in the practice of
law.

Steven González is the first justice of Mexican heritage to
serve on the bench of the Washington State Supreme Court since the
formation of the Court in 1889. González was appointed to the Court
in 2012, and served on the King County Superior Court bench
from 2002-2012. González earned his J.D. from the
University of California at Berkley’s law school and was admitted
to the Washington state bar in 1991. He graduated from Pitzer
College, a member of the Claremont Colleges, with a B.A. in East
Asian Studies and studied abroad in undergraduate and advanced
studies in Japan and China. From 1997 to 2002, González was
an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the state’s Western District. He also
worked in the City of Seattle Attorney’s Office from 1996 to 1997
as a trial attorney in the domestic violence unit. Before that, he
practiced business and civil law with the firm Hillis Clark Martin
and Peterson from 1991 to 1996.

Susan J. Owens was first elected in 2000 to the Supreme
Court. She joined the court after serving nineteen years as
District Court Judge in Western Clallam County, where she was the
County’s senior elected official with five terms. She also served
as the Quileute Tribe’s Chief Judge and Chief Judge of the Lower
Elwha S’Klallam Tribe.

Chief Justice Barbara Madsen was elected to serve a second term
as the 55th Chief Justice of the Washington State Supreme Court in
October. As Chief Justice, she is the court’s chief spokesperson,
presides over Supreme Court hearings and conferences, and co-chairs
the state’s Board for Judicial Administration. The voters elected
Justice Madsen as the third woman to serve on the Washington
Supreme Court in 1992, and she was re-elected in 1998, 2004, and
2010.

Kitsap County’s legal community recently weighed in on
the crowded card of judicial races set for the Aug. 7
primary. You can find the results of the Kitsap
County Bar Association’s preference poll below.

For the
Tacoma-based court of appeals seat (one that serves Kitsap and
its surrounding counties), the lawyers gave Bremerton attorney Tom
Weaver the most first choice votes (44) and Washington Association
of Prosecuting Attorneys’ legal counsel and Port Orchard resident
Pam Loginsky the second most (29) in the six candidate race.

In two of the races for the state’s supreme court, the county’s
lawyers were partial to the incumbents: the lawyers gave 77 first
choice votes to former Clallam County judge Susan Owens (the next
closest was three votes) and 90 votes to former King County judge
Steven Gonzalez to
Port Orchard Attorney Bruce Danielson’s two.

Public defenders can only handle 150 felony cases a year
under a
new rule issued today by the Washington State Supreme
Court. Such defense attorneys of those who cannot
afford counsel will only be able to take on 300 misdemeanors
per year as well, the court decided on an overall 6-3 vote.

The impetus for establishing the first-ever limits is to ensure
criminal defendants receive an attentive lawyer not overburdened by
other cases. That said, could the decision actually cause a spike
in costs to the county and state governments?

Bill Houser says no, at least as far as Kitsap County is
concerned.

Houser said Kitsap County’s Office of Public Defense has abided
by a standard similar to the one just mandated by the court since
the office’s inception. Attorneys have always been held to 150
felonies or less, he said, and if it’s a murder or “three strikes”
case, their caseload must decrease even further.

Houser did say that some attorneys handling simple misdemeanors
in the county do eclipse 300 at times.

Bear in mind, private attorneys can keep the caseloads they
please, as their paychecks come from the clients they serve.

Blogger’s note: Those who follow the Kitsap Sun know
that Megan G. Mollet, the 19-year-old convicted of rendering
criminal assistance to the man who shot and killed Washington State
Trooper Tony Radulescu,
was sentenced to a year in jail Tuesday.

Several speakers made statements on behalf of prosecutors and
Mollet at the sentencing hearing. Bremerton Police Sgt. Billy
Renfro, one of the first officers on scene after Radulescu was
killed, told Kitsap County Superior Court Judge Leila Mills
this:

“As everyone knows, this nightmare started around 1:00 am on
February 23rd, 2012. For most of us working that
night it began with Deputy Rob Corn stopping by a traffic stop to
check on a fellow officer and friend, Trooper Tony Radulescu, who
was not (answering status checks). This was followed a few seconds
later by Deputy Corn advising “Officer down.” Chilling words to
hear over the police radio.

What Deputy Corn saw and experienced at that scene is something
that I simply cannot imagine. The rest of us had a minute or
two to mentally prepare ourselves for what we were getting ready to
get involved in. In the world of first responders, a minute or two
is a lifetime. My friend Rob did not have that luxury. No amount of
training and experience can prepare an officer for this type of
scene and I know that I was not prepared.

One of the first people I remember seeing after my arrival at
the scene was (Kitsap County) Deputy Matt Hill walking back from
where Tony lay alongside the road dead. I’ve known Matt for
over 20 years and the distraught look on Matt’s face as he told me,
“They killed Tony. They shot him in the head” is something that I
will never forget.

I clearly recall the look of shock on everyone’s face and the
surreal feeling that this can’t be happening. The
gut-wrenching feeling as I rounded the front of Tony’s patrol car
to see him lying on the shoulder of that highway is something I
never want to feel again.

I remember Tony’s supervisor, Sergeant Tegard, choking back
tears as he made phone calls from the scene, notifying others of
the tragedy; I remember the look of disbelief on Trooper Germaine
Walker’s face as we loaded Tony onto the stretcher; and I will
never forget the image of Trooper Mitch Bauer standing in the back
of a South Kitsap Medic Unit with his fellow trooper on a stretcher
next to him, dead.

In trying to explain why she lied to police, Megan Mollet has
said that Josh Blake was a different person after the shooting,
“Not the Josh she knew. There was a change in his eyes.” I only
know Josh Blake from what I’ve read about and heard from others,
but it was no secret the kind of person he was. He was a
violent criminal through and through and a scourge to our society.
Megan Mollet knew this of Josh Blake, considered him a friend, and
a person she would drug and drink with on a regular basis.

I’ve heard and read that Megan Mollet and her supporters claim
that she had no choice but to lie to officers after the murder of
Trooper Tony Radulescu. I could not disagree more, and this is
simply a copout on Megan Mollet’s part.

After the murder, Megan Mollet made numerous choices to lie to
officers after Josh Blake was nowhere around, and she was safely
seated in a patrol car. She actively hindered and delayed our
investigation and our search for a cop killer, putting numerous
officers’ lives at risk, and she did this because Josh Blake was
her friend, not because she was afraid.

Since her arrest Megan Mollet continues with her poor choices
and showing her loyalty to her friend Josh Blake, as is evident by
the words etched into her jail cell wall, “White Power. RIP Josh
Blake.” How infuriating.

Let there be no confusion for Megan Mollet, or her
supporters. There are numerous people related to the events
that unfolded on February 23rd that did not have a
choice, but Megan Mollet is not one of them; Trooper Tony Radulescu
did not have a choice that night; Tony’s family and loved ones did
not have a choice; and none of the troopers, deputies, or officers
that responded to that scene, and then had to immediately engage in
a manhunt, with no time to mourn the loss of one of our own, had a
choice…Megan Mollet had a choice.

I’m sure Megan Mollet will ask the court for mercy, provide
excuses for her actions, and maybe even express some remorse. I ask
that the court keep in mind that Megan Mollet is an established
self-serving liar. It was from absolutely no assistance from
Megan Mollet that the cowardly murderer Josh Blake was located. We
did that on our own.

In closing, residents of Kitsap County, Kitsap County Law
Enforcement, and the Washington State Patrol lost a respected
member of our community and profession, and it is terribly painful.
I respectfully ask that the court sentence Megan Mollet to the
maximum allowable sentence.”

Essentially, “special inquiry” proceedings give prosecutors a
way to bring potential evidence before a judge for review, as
investigators probe whether there is probable cause to charge
someone with a crime.

It’s kind of like the process for obtaining a search warrant,
but, as Johnson points out in the story, it doesn’t require sworn
statements “or a finding of probable cause that a crime has been
committed.” Furthermore, search warrants generally become a matter
of public record — but special inquiry proceedings rarely, if ever,
do (Johnson’s story points out one instance where they have).

After reading his
story, I called Kitsap County Prosecutor Russ Hauge to find out
if the special inquiry process was used here. I had noticed, in my
years as courts reporter, the phrase “special inquiry” written on
charging documents but never knew what it meant.

Hauge told me that the “special inquiry” use is not uncommon in
Kitsap. He said that at any given time, there are 10 or so pending,
mainly to seek financial records.

He said that while the process is a secret, it is overseen by a
judge, and, if prosecutors find no evidence of wrongdoing, nothing
goes public — and thus there’s no risk to the reputation of the
person investigated.

Prosecutors who use them say the proceedings are authorized by
state law, make for more efficient investigations and have plenty
of judicial oversight, but (a lawyer contesting the process) and
other defense attorneys say they raise questions about privacy,
accountability and the open administration of justice.

Hauge said the proceedings are based in the grand jury system,
but — as authorized by lawmakers in 1971 — without the grand jury.
There is judicial oversight and “It maintains all of the
protections,” given to its witnesses and potential targets.

And where did the idea for these proceedings come from?
Organized crime, as it turns out. From Johnson’s
story:

The special inquiry law was a response to a corruption scandal
involving the Seattle police, including the former chief, and the
former King County prosecutor. When Chris Bayley was elected King
County prosecutor, he organized a grand jury to investigate.

Dave Boerner, a semi-retired Seattle University criminal law
professor, was a deputy King County prosecutor then. He recalled
that the grand jury was cumbersome, slow and expensive, and he
joined his boss in urging lawmakers to adopt a new type of
proceeding — the special inquiries.

CASE BACKGROUND: In the case of Ostling vs. Bainbridge
Island, jurors in U.S. District court are wrestling with two
conflicting viewpoints: either two Bainbridge Island police
officers were just doing “the best they could under the
circumstances,” in responding to Douglas Ostling’s home in October
2010, or they caused a “preventable death that would’ve been
avoided if they’d followed their own policy manual.”

The case, having been ongoing three weeks now, is set to wrap up
this week. Kitsap Sun Reporter Tristan Baurick will be in court
Tuesday and Wednesday covering the testimony, which you can follow
live below.

In his closing arguments Thursday, Drury said that Mollet’s lies
slowed investigators’ efforts to learn who Blake was and where he’d
gone after dropping her off at a house on Sidney Road near Port
Orchard.

“She concealed him with the intent to delay the apprehension or
even to keep him from being prosecuted,” Drury says.

When first contacted by investigators, Mollet said she didn’t
know Blake and claimed she had spent the night helping someone in
Belfair move. But after authorities arrested her the next day, she
admitted that she’d been with Blake when he shot and killed the
trooper.

Morrison argued that Mollet was scared, and that failure to
report a crime is not against the law. He pointed out that she
never mislead investigators or attempted to provide
misinformation.

Morrison also argued that police never told Mollet that they
would protect her from Blake if telling the truth. Drury pointed
out that she was surrounded by police when she lied.

Drury reminded jurors that Mollet testified that “I kept yelling
at him and telling him he was stupid” after Blake shot Radulescu.
The prosecutor said that didn’t sound like someone who was fearing
for her life.

Morrison contended the pair was not Bonnie and Clyde and that
prosecutors “wanted to make an example out of her.”

CASE BACKGROUND: The plaintiff Ostling family is
expected to wrap up its case this week. They’re suing the
city of Bainbridge Island for alleged civil rights violations
against Douglas Ostling, the night the 43-year-old was shot and
killed by police.

Reporter Tristan Baurick is at court live blogging the
proceedings today.

CASE BACKGROUND: Testimony begins today in the case of
State of Washington vs. Megan Mollet. Mollet is charged by
county prosecutors with rendering criminal assistance to the man
who killed Washington State Trooper Tony Radulescu on Feb. 23.
Mollet is also charged with making false statements to police.

Sixty people were considered to serve on the jury considering
the charges against Mollet, including making a false statement to a
public servant, a gross misdemeanor, and the original rendering
charge, a felony.

This afternoon will be opening statements from Kitsap County
Deputy Prosecutor Tim Drury and Mollet’s attorney, Jonathan
Morrison.